Are we going to witness an historical housing price correction amid sharpest rise in unemployment and social tension?...and the minimum you should know in order to protect yourself from this downturn from an economic, stock market and political point of view... with a pinch of humor and sarcasm.

Thursday, 3 January 2008

Are they Nuts?

"Petrol and diesel tax hikes introduced in Finland at the start of the year have been transferred to consumer prices almost fully"

"Alcohol taxes were raised in Finland at the beginning of 2008. Starting from Tuesday the tax on strong alcoholic beverages was increased by 15 per cent and taxes on mild alcoholic beverages went up by 10 per cent."

That's how the government is kicking the new year by raising taxes. When Oil price reach an historical 100$ per barrel, it's crazy or irresponsible to raise tax on petrol. Yesterday, it was shocking to see the following prices at the pump : 1.45 euro for petrol and 1.22 euro for diesel engine.

Are they nuts? do they want to sink the consumers?Right, on one hand the consumers are heavy loaded under debt but on the other the government is offloading its debt :

"The Finnish government cut national debt by almost three billion euros last yearStrong economic growth and an increase in tax revenues and fees for public services have helped in reducing debt."

"A total of 93 local authorities have raised their income tax rates by half a percentage point or more, which means a net increase in the tax burden in spite of cuts in state taxes."

"Matti Vanhanen is now exhorting labour market organisations to think of the travel cards as a method of preventing climate change by the time of the next round of global climate talks in 2009.". Is he thinking that the public is "dumb"? that's amazing ... So Finland is going to help preventing climate change by government policies.... It's a wake up call, next time please elect smart people.... US, China and India are the biggest polluters..so if they want to do something about climate change they better have a European strategy and use their diplomatic and economical muscles to make those irresponsible to act and act quickly.